Choosing a right Web Development Agency for your Website

Choosing a right Web Development Agency is a very important decision for any business, specially small and mid size companies who expect their website to generate business. Website of a company is the face of the company online, your business prospect will first check your website even before meeting with you for the first time. Thus it becomes really important to choose a right Web Development Agency for your business website.

Choosing a right Web Development Agency is like taking other important long term business decisions. Your website development is the only first step, you may needed to partnered with that agency for the long term for other web related services like Digital Marketing, SEO or for further Website Expansion. Thus it’s wise to choose a right Web Development Agency, who can provide related web services for the long run.

Choosing a right Web Development agency is not that easy, We have seen companies choosing the wrong agency and then keep switching the agencies, This results in the wastage of your company resources. Here we have outlined the process to help you choose the right Web Development Agency for your business website.

OK, So Let’s go ahead and see the Process, It’s only six (6) Steps –

1. Be prepared with your requirement:

Before you start looking for a Web Development agency, First be ready with some basic information about your website requirement. So that you will have an idea of what to discuss with a web development agency. Following is the list of information you should have before actually looking for a web development agency.

1. Purpose of your Website: You should be very clear about the purpose of your website, Like if you are making your website for just company info, or you are also going to sell product or services from your website. If you know the exact requirement, it will be easy to set expectations from your website and Web Development Agency.

2. Target Audience of your Website: If you know your target audience, it will be easy for you to choose the design that suits your audience and also help you writing content for your target audience.

3. Marketing your Website and future expansion: You should be ready with the information as how you are going to market your website. Will you be doing SEO or other digital marketing stuffs. If you are clear with this you can ask your developer to make an SEO compatible website. Also you should have some idea about the future expansion of your website and ask your developer to make a website which is easy for future expansion, Otherwise once your business grow, you need to change your website completely, which will incur higher cost.

4. Set the Budget: It’s good to setup an initial budget for your website before discussing anything with an agency, otherwise it will be a wastage of time when you have discussed everything and then at the last get the proposal from the agency which is way higher. It’s good to tell them about your budget upfront, It will save you money and time both.

5. Point of Contact from your side: Fix up a contact person from your side, There may be many people giving input for the website but there should be a single point of contact from your side, who will be accountable for the entire project.

You can make the note of these information, It will not only help you choose the right agency for your website development but also will speed up the process.

2. Searching a Web Development Agency:

Aaahhh Searching .. It’s not that difficult, as there might be thousands of Web Development Agency in your city itself. But how to search them ..?? Here are few quick tips on how you can search web development agencies.

1. Thanks to Google ! Just Google Search “Website development in your city” and you will get the list of the agencies offering web development services in your city.

2. You may ask for reference from your friends, They might help you with the list of service providers, they have already hired.

3. Also if you like any website, you can check the website footer you may get the agency name and link who has developed that website.

3. Shortlisting the Selected Web Development Agencies:

As of now, you must have got the list of many Web Development agency, But how to shortlist the one that best fits your requirement. It’s difficult to talk to everyone, Thus here are the quick tips which will help you shortlisting the Web Development agencies from the list of selected one.

1. Check for their website and see if you like their own website also check their portfolio and see you you like the websites they have made. If you don’t like their websites, It’s better to filter them out without further wasting time on them.

2. Check their Facebook and Twitter Page and see how recent they have posted or tweeted on their social media pages. If it’s not updated recently Just drop them from your list, They might not be serious in their business.

3. Read the reviews on their social media pages, It will also help you choose the best Web development agency for your company.

4. Check for the pricing on their website, sometimes agencies list their pricing on their website. If their pricing is out of your budget, you can drop them from your list.

4. Contact the web development agency:

At this stage you have already gathered information regarding your website requirement and also you have got the list of few Web Development agencies. Now It’s time to contact them.

You can fill a contact query form from the agency website itself, or you can reach then on email. Take note on how much time they take to respond back with the proposal. Time taking in responding an email can also be a deciding factor in choosing a web development agency.

5. Discuss with the Agency, Ask your questions:

Once you have started getting proposals from the agencies, It’s time to discuss your requirement with the website development agency. Here you should try to get the answers of all of your questions regarding your website. Below is the few sample questions you should ask with a web development agency.

General Questions:

1. What will be the cost of the project? Is it fixed or is it possible that the price will change throughout the project? What will be the renewal cost for your website?

2. You can ask for the sample work to check the features and functionality you need in your website. Also ask for the references you can call to ask about their work and you can check their credentials.

3. Ask for the delivery time so that you can fix your other plans as per the time schedule and also you can track the progress of your website.

4. Also check if they will provide you a dedicated account manager or if there will be a direct point of contact to support and contact during the development stage.

Questions related to Website Designing and Development:

1. Discuss about the platform for your website development, Ask for the pros and cons of the available platforms.

2. Check with them if they will make your website from the scratch or they will use a template. If they are going to use a template, check with them how many template they will give you as option.

3. Discuss with the agency about the requirement from your side, what all they need from you, If they need logo, images etc.

4. Also be clear as who will write the content, It’s you are the agency and when will be the content added to the Website.

Questions Regarding After Sale Services:

1. Ask for the training if any needed once your website will be completed. Like E-Commerce Website needs training on how the add and manage products, categories etc.

2. Also check with them how long they will provide free support for your website, generally it should be 12 months and also check what all will be included in the free support.

3. What will be the recurring or renewal cost of your website, hosting etc. after 12 months. Also discuss about the cost for further expansion and maintenance of your website in the future.

These are the sample questions, and we hope that it helps in choosing a right web development agency for your company. Some of these questions might be more relevant for your company than other.

6. Finalizing Web Development Agency:

At this stage now it’s time to carefully reviewing the list of agencies you have discussed your requirement and questions. Now it should be easy for you to compare the agencies and choose the best that fits your requirement.

Disclaimer: We are also a Web Development Agency, but this article doesn’t meant to promote our services. We hope that the information here will help you choose the right Web Development Agency for your company.